Survey Says: American Households Spend $1,200 A Year On Gadgets

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) has just released the results of a study they conducted in February, and the word from them is that the average American household spends about $1,200 per year on gadgets. It appears that televisions are the biggest piece of the pie, as 92% of American homes have them, and 25% of those homes own HDTV sets. Mobile phones are also way up there, not surprisingly, owned by 76% of all American households. Focusing on more recent times, it seems that network hardware components are the hottest sellers right now, as American households are integrating more personal computers into the mix, requiring routers and wireless access points. Along with DVRs, network equipment purchases rose by 8%.

“Many of the top owned products have enjoyed mass-market saturation for years and will likely see growth based on upgrade and replacement sales,” said CEA senior research analyst Elena Caudle. “Some of the more intriguing categories are those that still occupy niche markets, such as mobile CE devices like GPS systems and satellite radio, which have seen healthy growth in the past few years.”

Even more interesting though, is that it was determined that the average teen spends about half of their total income on consumer electronics and gadgets. Households with teenagers exceed the national purchasing average of $1,200 by up to $500.

Of course, to readers of this site, this is nothing new. In fact, we bet that many of you, like us, can spend upwards of $5,000 a year on gadgets or more. Are we right? Let us know in the comments, or hit up the forums. How much do you spend on gadgets on an annual basis?

Well this year I know that I will be spending about at least $300 alone on games, not to mention other things. But I know that I am not updating my PC this year or next. So I will save some money there.

Well........ Lets see. I got the Xbox 360 last year, the Zune two of them that is, a Nikon Coolpix L6 6MP camera, three more controllers for the 360, the camera for the 360, and I think thats it. I would guess thats over 1,200. Oh wait! We got new ear buds for the Zunes, and two headsets for the 360.
Damn that adds up quick.
I forgot to mention the games. Check out mt gamer tag bar, and you can see how many of those I have gotten.

Well, if you count the HDTV that my mom got my brother and me for Christmas, then we're already over the mark.... plus component cables for the cable box, components for the Wii, the Wii itself, Wii controller, Wii games, and $300 in games between Christmas and today. So... yeah, we're way over.

[quote author="Andru Edwards" date="1178061209"]What - none of you guys have cell phones? :P[/quote]
Hmmmmmmmm........
Does that include the phone bill? I'm on a plan that every six months I can get a new phone, but if I don't we get a $150 credit. So yes last year we did get two new phones; I'm guessing that the amount for the credit would be added to the grand total.